Author: Admin

Tommy had been a club coach working with all ages and abilities and subsequently a coach working at the very highest international level.   Where did he go next?   We know already that he was not one who let the grass grow under his feet, always looking ahead.   It is sometimes instructive to look at where a person might go and compare it with what they actually did.   Tommy could have done as many others did and just leave the sport on the grounds that he had done his bit and it was time for others to take over.   He could have lived off past successes and spent the next 20 years giving the same lecture/s, telling the same anecdotes as an after dinner speaker in return for the appropriate fee.   He did neither of these, and to understand his decision it must be remembered what he had learned in the beginning back in the Bellshill YMCA where he noted the many ‘life lessons’ he had learned.  He had to put something back into the sport and the approach to any athlete at whatever level had to be a holistic one.   Where did he go next?

It was a natural fit for Tommy to link up with Winning Scotland Foundation and it is typical of the man how he managed to engage with them.   It all started when he was challenging Scottish Athletics and The Scottish Institute of Sport to help him address the gap in financial support for Susan Scott in her quest to win a medal in Melbourne Commonwealth Games and then become world class.   Tommy took a professional business approach to the challenge and compiled a presentation to SAL and to The Scottish Institute of Sport.

To understand the Boyle journey, we must also be aware of his business career.    Tommy rose through the ranks in Honeywell, where he was spotted as having potential by vice presidents Jim Adamson and Tom Frame who mentored him through his journey, they guided  Tommy to apply for every engineering job which came up and supported him to try again when he was unsuccessful, teaching him life lessons about perseverance and tenacity until eventually he succeeded, he started on the staff as a junior engineer then engineer and senior engineer eventually becoming a staff engineer and trouble shooter, experiencing far reaches of Phoenix, San Diego and many European Honeywell sites.    Tommy describes this Journey as critical to his learning about growth mindset, and business efficiency and singles out his research into Japanese methodology as a breakthrough in understanding the importance of doing things right first time.   It’s called the Kaizen Methodology.   In 1989, David Keys his then CEO who had spotted leadership qualities, took him aside and said “Your sabbatical is over (Tommy was aware they allowed him  a lot of slack to pursue coaching ) I need you to take over production engineering”   That triggered his decision to reflect and then change his strategic direction in coaching.

Now time was precious so it was focus on the important few and critically hone his  leadership and management skills which he did over the next thirty years.   Honeywell computers moved to Livingston ,were taken over by NEC, then  Bull Computers, and finally Packard Bell.  Tommy once again rose through the steps of management to eventually, in 2002, take over as Director of Operations with one objective in his mind: that the plant survive against a climate of fierce competition where margins were reducing and eastern European countries were cheaper.  Tommy recognised that his greatest strength was his people management skills combined with a fierce competitive spirit, vitally treating people the way he would like to be treated.   He eliminated timing in shop floor supervision and established a works council.   Tommy says the synergy between coaching skills and management was massive and we developed many fine young people who are now in jobs all over the world.  He says, ” Yes I fell very proud of what we achieved indeed Doug Gillon did a great article on the efficiency of the plant over those few years and drew a parallel with sport and athletics in particular where  at that time the trends were going in the opposite direction .”

Tommy says those years were magical.   “We just did our own thing utilised Kaizen to its max did things our way and produced world class manufacturing results, a measure of the success was that as Chinese pressure grew the parent companies actually shut down NEC semiconductors Livingston retaining the computer division and then Packard Bell closed the French computer site, and retained Livingston a unique event in French industry.”

Tommy and his team knew that eventually the significantly cheaper Chinese would prevail, and he spent this final two years successfully closing the plant and securing jobs for his staff.

Sir Bill Gammell

The story began when he was coaching Susan Scott, having massive experience by this time Tommy knew that to succeed in today’s high-performance world athletes required to be adequately supported financially. In 2004 Tommy with a typical business led approach to the challenge, compiled a presentation to SAL and to the Scottish Institute of Sport.   It was an objective picture of where they were and what they required to be competitive in Melbourne. He challenged Scottish Athletics and The Scottish Institute of Sport to help him address the gap in financial support for Susan Scott in her quest to and win a medal.

Aileen McGillivray was the support manager to Susan at the Institute and she arranged for the CEO Anne Marie Harrison to visit the Livingston plant where Tommy did his presentation.   She was very impressed with the professional approach and subsequently negotiated that we present to a potential funder.   That Funder was Winning Scotland Foundation

The outcome was that  Susan received a two year funding deal, however equally important was that WSF were now aware of Tommy Boyle and his wider vision for sport in society.   To understand their interest, we need to look at a different person altogether, Sir Bill Gammell who has been described as “passionate about developing people and instilling a positive winning attitude in both business and sport.”   The Winning Scotland Foundation says on its website that “Sir Bill Gammell founded Cairn Energy and was Chief Executive from the Company’s initial listing in 1988 until 30 June 2011. Over the last five years Cairn has returned $4.5 billion to its shareholders. Bill stood down as Chairman of Cairn Energy in 2014 and is a Director of Figured Ltd, offering strategic business advice to clients.   He has over 35 years’ experience in the international oil and gas industry and was awarded a knighthood in 2006 for services to industry in Scotland. Sir Bill, who is an ex-Scotland rugby internationalist (1977-1980) is Chairman of the Winning Scotland Foundation and a member of the British Olympic Advisory Board.   In 2006 he founded Winning Scotland Foundation to mobilise efforts to raise aspirations and self-belief amongst young people in Scotland. The Foundation’s vision is ‘to help all young people in Scotland achieve their personal best’ and over £7 million has been invested to date.”

 In an article in the Scotsman  we read  “… Boyle might have ended his active involvement in Scottish sport a couple of years ago, when he retired from his post in the electronics industry.   But he turned down offers to coach abroad in favour of joining the Winning Scotland Foundation, the company founded and partly funded by former rugby international Sir Bill Gammell.   Boyle is now the director of Positive Coaching Scotland (PCS), the programme, run by the Foundation, which works with parents, councils, schools and other organisations.   PCS aims to increase participation in sport by school-age children way beyond its current 20 per cent or so, and to keep them involved by ensuring parents and others offer positive encouragement.  It is a bold, vastly ambitious initiative, one which Boyle thinks could take five to ten years to bear fruit.  Several councils are already on board.

“The real target is the parents of the 80 per cent of children who are not doing sport, or who are having bad experiences in sport and drop out,” he explained. “If we believe, like most top business people and top sportspeople believe, that sport is the greatest vehicle there is for teaching life lessons, then we are failing as a nation.   “We need to start recruiting quadruple the number of young people into sport.   And that needs to start now. “Lest anyone thinks Boyle espouses a woolly, optimistic approach in which competition is frowned on and there are prizes for everyone, he made it clear he believes kids love to compete, and that their will to win should be encouraged. What is more, although he insists that enjoyment is paramount, he is also convinced that hard work is the key to success. “We need to teach people at a young age that they need to work harder,” he continued. “Tom McKean and Yvonne Murray basically worked harder than any athletes in Scotland, probably in Britain, and probably in the world at that time.

The Mission at WSF began in March 2007: Tommy was invited to do a bit of consultancy consisting of researching what were the issues in sport in Scotland which affected participation and performance.

He spent four months researching the problems in youth sport.  This involved in depth repeat visits to eleven local authorities, engaged with most major NGBs and Sport Scotland. Critically he also engaged with education at a national and local authority level.   It was a massive research project using his vast coaching knowledge, listening to people in sport, to local authority sports professionals and vitally volunteers in local sports clubs.

The mission was to better understand what the major issues were in sport and society and how WSF could help. Tommy remembers long days and nights on government web sites trawling through stats, analysing trends at times disappearing down blind alleys guided by the experts in sport and local authorities many with very blinkered views.

However, with typical tenacity he worked relentlessly and gradually emerged a clear picture which pointed to societal issues such as less physical activity, overweight and obese children at ever younger ages which resulted in reduction in physical literacy skills He called it a ticking time bomb for the NHS and the health and wellbeing of the nation.

Within sport the major issues were children with poor physical literacy requiring ill equipped coaches to spend increasing time just getting kids fit lowering of performances at every age and stage critically massive drop out from sport at ever younger ages. research in the US quotes over 80% by age 14 Tommy was wise enough to recognise that there was mountains of research in Scotland concluding the facts, however there was little evidence that at Government levels there was recognition of the wide-reaching impact this decline would have on the health of the nation and critically very few ideas practical solutions 

Why was this of interest to Tommy and WSF?   Their mission was “to help young people become the best they could be in sport and life”,  recognising that sport is the greatest vehicle there is to teach young people life lessons like effort, teamwork, respect, lessons, which would them be successful in their working life.

He was very clear that WSF required to focus on their mission and avoid the minefield of trying to solve the nation’s problems, this required some creative thinking and if possible a bespoke solution – don’t reinvent the wheel.    Having travelled and researched extensively in his business life Tommy was very comfortable with the concept of using other peoples solutions at reduced coast.   Graham Watson, his boss, had experienced a cultural change programme in California.   It was called Positive Coaching Alliance, so Tommy did his usual due diligence on PCA and concluded this could work in Scotland.   He was amazed at the close correlation behind his findings and what Jim Thompson had researched in the US .   Could a bespoke cultural change model for sport which had been developed at Stanford University https://www.positivecoach.org/ led by another world visionary https://www.positivecoach.org/team/thompson-jim/

Positive Coaching Alliance was a business model with at that time thirty employees.   Together with Project Manager Clair McDonald he headed to California explored every aspect of their business model, what they did, how they did it, would it work in Scotland and critically how much it would cost to licence.   

Tommy’s reputation preceded him, and his first visit was to Stanford University Sports Department.   Jim Thompson was a giant amongst men a quietly spoken man with a massive dream to spread PCA across the USA.   Being a business lecturer at Stanford,  he knew how to run a business and gradually built his foundation into a scale-able model which could expand across the United States: one city, one state at a time, each new chapter as he called them requiring to be self-funding from delivering workshops and resources to sports clubs combined with philanthropic giving which was massive in the US.

Jim recognised the potential in having a satellite in Scotland.  He was amazed that WSF had managed to secure Tommy Boyle, Master Coach, to lead the programme and agreed to a licence deal with Sir Bill Gemmell.   Tommy says it was a wonderful experience seeing what they had created and experiencing dedicated staff delivering lectures (workshops) to club leaders parents’ coaches and athletes all over California. Everyone was on the same page enthusiastic passionate and driven in their quest to help sport create a better culture in which young people would enjoy the experience stay for longer and critically learn those valuable life lessons through their sport

Tommy remembers the day Tina Seyer  https://www.positivecoach.org/team/syer-tina took him to Stanford University Sports Department.,  He still says, ” WOW it was heaven for a coach and athlete”.  

13/11/12 – SFA HAMPDEN – GLASGOW – Success Through Effort seminar with Tina Seyer and Alex McLeish

Back in Scotland it was back to the mission select local authorities and one National Governing Body (the biggest football) to pilot the project. Develop a project plan and budget get Board approval and find major sponsors

To say Tommy Boyle was in his element at WSF is a gross understatement, he was now doing what he had always wanted to do using his experience and expertise to help young people in Scotland.   Tommy says it was a wonderful journey, working with a fantastic team with total commitment and support from Sir Bill Gemmell.   Bill and his wife Janice were awesome people, quite unique in their giving to society.   

Bill identified the vision Tommy had and gradually used this to reshape the direction of WSF away from the initial high-performance ideas to the niche of Cultural Change in Scotland.   Tommy says “Bill is a fantastic guy to work with, always amazed me when he would turn up at grass roots workshops and join the audience and just soak it in. We had a very special relationship and I will forever be grateful to him for allowing me to pursue my dream over nine great years at WSF.

My boss for most of the journey was Susan Jackson, a wonderful lady, a rifle shooter, mum and now joint mnaging director at Campion Homes.   See  https://www.campionhomes.com/blog/an-inspirational-insight-into-our-joint-managing-director/”

Tommy realised that with this support he had to produce results and for the first two year of the pilot he threw himself at the challenge, working long hours, six day a week.   Tommy and Claire recruited Grant Small to manage the Football Pilot in Fife (the SFA regional manager was Mark Munro who is now CEO of Scottish Athletics).

Tommy said “I had a wonderful experience it was tough making headway and tying to help others see what I could see and how it would help them, but that is what I was good at – working with people (coaching)”

The Clackmannanshire Provost and Team

He says, “The pilot local authorities were phased, and I met fantastic people in each, People who made a real difference in their local authority or sport.  

• Ian Pye from East Renfreshire got it, and he and his team were awesome
• Jim Fleeting and Andy Gould at the SFA saw the need in football and gave it 100%.   They were tough but wonderful people to work with and together we made a real difference to the culture in football indeed they are still implementing the next generation PCS 2
• David Maiden was the driver in Fife he was an experienced operator from education and sport and guided us through many difficult situations together with Jen he made it happen wow!
• Stirling it was Jackie Lynne (once a wee girl at Bellshill YMCA) now Head of School and Community Sport at Sport Scotland.    Together with Gordon Crawford (ex Staff Coach for steeple chase in Scottish athletics, now Swiss National Coach for triathlon, at Elite and U23 levels, Jackie gave a load of advice on how to implement the pilot and Gordon got the coaching bit together they made it happen in Stirling area, also Bob Wylie now sportscotland was appointed as full time PCS Coordinator
• Glasgow was a tough gig politically however we got there: the first workshops were in Drumchapel and the whole WSF team helped.  It was great.

Tommy worked hard using his own credibility to get the maximum press coverage and his friend, journalist Doug Gillon did several articles, one on a parents Workshop in  East Renfrewshire, which was also covered at length in The Scotsman.

Tommy even got the Minister of Sport aware of PCS.   Tommy, in his capacity as Director of Positive Coaching Scotland, at the Semi-Final Draw for The Scottish Communities League Cup where details of a new partnership between the Scottish Government, the Scottish Football League and the Winning Scotland Foundation to promote the competition’s values of Respect, Responsibility and Tolerance were launched.

                                                                   Launch of Positive Coaching in Stirling with Jim Thomson

After all that work – long hours, travelling not just the length and breadth of Scotland but across the Atlantic, what does Tommy Think now as he reflects on his involvement on other projects at the Winning Sports Foundation?

It was a massive achievement to bring Professor Carol Dweck to Scotland and WSF added mindset to its mission and continues to develop along those lines   ( see  https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/   )

Another idea was to work in early years and Tommy spent around six months touring Scotland trying to establish how or if WSF could help in this critical area.   In effect the Scottish government have now increased the provision for early years support, so our gut feel that it did not fit our mission was correct

He says of his time with WSF: “I had a fantastic journey, working with wonderful people, meeting thousands of great people in communities across the country.   However after three attempts I eventually decided to retire and spend more time with my family.   I now love every minute, especially as our two sons are involved in athletics. “

You can see some of the many people that he met on this journey if you follow the links below the photograph with Chris Hoy.

The question still hangs in the air though – IS THERE MORE TO COME FROM COACH BOYLE?   

People that Tommy worked with       PCS colleagues     More PCS colleague – mainly football

Tommy Boyle is a quite remarkable athletics coach with a rather different background to most international coaches.   It is a much richer background in the range of experiences that have contributed to his outlook on life in general and sport in particular: it was certainly not the straightforward progression of many of his peers.    For that reason his early background has to be looked at perhaps more closely than usual.

Family history of running is limited to his grandfather running for Motherwell YMCA as a boy, but there was no athletic role model in his immediate family.   Tommy’s family home was on the edge of village, of Newarthill in Lanarkshire.  Living in the country he, like all the other youngsters around,  did loads of exercise –  bird watching, ferreting rabbits , and so on – and spent most of his time in the open air active in one way or another.   It was all fun to him!  Newarthill is about three miles from Motherwell, and it’s a bit ironic that Wikipedia comments that Newarthill does not have any leisure facility of note.   Tommy as the eldest son in a family of eleven. ran and/or  cycled around 10 miles a day doing a paper round to bring in some added money. This was not unique to him, as he points out, many good endurance athletes in that era did paper or milk rounds.   His early athletics career involved winning some money each year at local gala day sports – a big event in the community! 

Master Thomas Boyle

 There is often some key figure or figures in the development of a sportsman and Tommy encountered several people who helped him on his way.   Encouraged by his Boys Brigade  Captain, Jim Sherwood, to start a Cross Country team, Tommy says of the resulting team, “we developed a great team spirit and they all worked very hard, we did a session on Sunday after bible class and morning service , the caretaker allowed us into the church hall free and I introduced them to a five mile run, we ran 2.5 miles out into country on ash path and ran back  It was a handicapped run and the winner got into bath tub first ,it was tough and I learned the physical and mental advantages of handicapping.”   It would be interesting to know why Jim Sherwood encouraged Tommy in particular to form the team and not any of the other boys.   How did his career develop from there?

Well, he won the series of three races as an individual, and the team won the battalion Cross Country Trophy.    The winner of the races before Tommy was John Graham who went on to great things as a marathon runner.   As a result he was invited to go along to Motherwell YMCA by  Bobby Craigen,  which was full of very good athletes many of whom ran for Scotland: in included runners like the Brown brothers, Bert McKay, Ian McCafferty and a many famous names.   That first training night was very intimidating so he did not go back.   However, he was also invited to join Bellshill YMCA Harriers, the club with which he was always associated, by Johnny Waddell who was the captain in Bellshill Battalion and  secretary of the Bellshill YMCA Harriers,which he had resurrected after many years .

Always one to go that wee bit further, he spoke to his Dad, whom he calls  “my greatest inspiration in life” and he told him to go and speak to Bob Henshaw a train driver from Newarthill ,who was steeped in the Pro Athletics Culture.   Tommy says “as it transpired, he held a youth sport class at the Bellshill Academy, where Bellshill YMCA harriers and football teams trained, so I went along and joined up and really learned so much from Bob.   He was a gentleman and although his expertise was in sprints, he introduced me to the concept of Circuit training he had a holistic approach to  developing young athletes, Physically, Psychologically and Socially – (later to learn these were the pillars of MASTERY Coaching )”

He was a pupil at Dalziel High School (above), class of ’61 his Facebook page tells us, which he says “was a fantastic School and way ahead of its time.  High academic achieving but more important led by a visionary head teacher in Jimmy Scobbie – who developed a fantastic School Culture which encouraged every pupil to participate in school activities even if they were not good at that activity.”   The school was founded in 1902,  James Scobbie was head from 1952 to 1974 and is reported to have greatly enhanced the school’s performances and reputation.   This progress continues to this day – in 2008 it was voted the best school in Scotland.   Tommy describes the head of PE as a legend of his time.   Jimmy Hogg was an ex professional footballer who also had a holistic approach to sport.   The school has its own playing fields at Cleland which are used by several local sports clubs and in the 1960’s they were used for District and Inter-District cross-country races.   Every year a group of pupils went up to there to participate in sport for one afternoon a week, for 12 weeks of the academic year.  Everybody did everything, there were no superstars.   The pupils learned so much doing orienteering, rugby, football, hockey, athletics.   Tommy again: “However, what he was really developing was  character; reinforcing that “winning was success through sustained effort” and that you get out of life what you put in .   The Lanarkshire Schools cross country was held at Cleland estate each year and Jimmy would get the farmer to plough one of the fields at 90 degrees to the direction of running to make it tougher but safe .   He was the guy who ignited the spark which lit the flame of athletics in me,he truly inspired many generations of pupils to “become the very best they could be in sport and life” and many thousands of pupils did including one Tommy Boyle.” 

Tommy frequently talks of learning Life Lessons  and says “One of my great Life Lessons was after winning the school mile, a handicap where girls went off first, then at intervals each year group of boys followed.   I was in second year and to the surprise of everyone this wee guy from nowhere won the big competition  at the school sports.  Next morning I was asked to go along to the head’s office.  I thought for a big well done, however Jimmy Scobbie said  “Well-done Mr Boyle.   However, you did not wear the school uniform.”  I was taught yet another big lesson which I remembered for the rest of my life .

He left School at age 15 as the family needed the money.   This was when he moved from the family home to live in a caravan which was to the rear of his Dad’s house.   Tommy says “My grandfather Alex was a retired miner who had raced pigeons and greyhounds and at night he did a bit of poaching which filled the family pot.   The years spent living with him were massive in my learning: indeed he had a quiet way of educating me on what he had learned from life and, I guess, knocked me into shape through these restless teenage years.   Indeed, he was a giant among men”

Tommy went on to serve his apprenticeship at Colville’s training centre at Mossend  which he regards as a wonderful foundation for the rest of his life in manufacturing.   Little did Tommy know that these years were to inform and shape his career to such a degree that he would eventually become Manufacturing Director in Packard Bell, employing over 500 staff producing 5000 pcs a day.   Tommy says that it was these wise inspirational training instructors who taught a bunch of rebellious teenagers loads of life lessons as well as the technical information.  We began to learn about business processes, the seeds of which grew in my head to shape my coaching and business careers.

He was a member of Bellshill YMCA Harriers from age 14 through until age 20.   He says that he had a wee bit of potential,  “however I only trained three times a week, doing a run and circuits Tuesday and Thursday with either a run or competition on the Saturdays.   It should be pointed out that this was the normal pattern for almost all young runners in the country: two club nights plus Saturday at the club whether racing or not. They were great times, load s of fun – great banter with the YMCA football guys and learning from Bob as he groomed his pro sprinters for Powderhall

“I really enjoyed those years at Bellshill YMCA and was constantly encouraged by the then president Jimmy Love yet another visionary who was also the world YMCA president, we grew the harriers club and had a great deal of success in the younger age groups.

“I remember a few highlights of competition,

•  Winning the Lanarkshire Track 800  and being selected to compete in the inter-counties; Tom Paterson Shettleston was also in that team
•  Finishing third in the Scottish YMCA Cross Country and being  selected to run for the Scottish YMCA in Belfast ,I remember the team playing cards to the wee small hours on the ferry over;
• Getting advice from Andy Brown about how to pace myself , did not run well that day , I think it was all too much for me and only training three times a week was catching up .Jim McKechnie was in the team ;
• Good memories of medals at Lanarkshire and Scottish YMCA Comps at youth age groups ,
• I remember running the National CC at Hamilton race course, hundreds of runners – grass was long we turned at the bottom of the hill and I looked up to the finish about one  mile up the hill looked like goal posts.    Tom Paterson and Martin  McMahon passed me like whippets , I think Eddie Knox won that one, but I realised then training three times a week would not cut it !”

When he was 18 he had to work shifts, training became even more difficult and he only did the circuit sessions and road runs to keep fit.

Away from athletics for a moment, reaching the final year of his apprenticeship he was advised by one of the great tradesmen that heavy engineering was dying and it would be best to change my career pathway to Electronics.   He advised that the best way was to join the navy, earn some money  see the world and they would teach him electrical side of engineering.   So he left athletics, joined Shell and went out to the gulf on his first ship.    It was a massive experience.   Tommy lost a stone in weight, saw bit of the world and returned at age 21.   He joined Honeywell Computers starting on the shop floor as an inspector – the first stepping stone on a journey to the top in a very successful career in computing.

At that point he visited Bellshill YMCA to see the guys and when leaving was trapped by Jimmy Love  “who proceeded to lecture me on how the YMCA had taught me so many life lessons and set me on a solid pathway, he also highlighted that I had a great deal to offer if I took up coaching ,he immediately said the YMCA would pay all my coach education expenses if I volunteered one night a week (that was a wee bit stretching what he really had in mind )and he proceeded to get me enrolled at Largs in assistant club course the next month and so the next stage of my journey in athletics started .”   

It was, then, no coincidence that Bellshill YMCA suddenly appeared on cross-country fixture lists in the 1960’s – no doubt due to the efforts of the gentlemen that Tommy has mentioned above.  The SCCU District Relays were held there for four successive years between 1968 and 1971 inclusive, although the actual championships were never held at Bellshill .  District relays and championships were also held at Cleland, as were the inter-counties championships.   The venue was a new one to most runners but they soon discovered that the mud was real mud, and that there were real fences on what were politely referred to as traditional trails.  

Tommy is quite clear about the debt he owes to all the people who helped develop his character and shape his attitudes:  Jim Sherwood, Bob Henshaw, James Scobbie, Jimmy Hogg, John Waddell, Jimmy Love – his grandfather Alex a font of wisdom and his greatest inspiration in life, his Dad.   But they probably all spotted something in as well: why did Jim Sherwood pick  Tommy to organise the cross-country squad?   Why did Jimmy Love home in on Tommy to get into coaching in the first place?   Did they see leadership potential?   Did they see organisational ability?   Regardless, he was now on the coaching ladder while holding down a day job.    

Part Two:  Tommy Boyle as a Coach in Bellshill   Part Three: Tommy Boyle: Master Coach   Part Four:  Tommy Boyle:  Lifecoach     

Back to Front Page

Tommy, having been encouraged by Jimmy Love at Bellshill YMCA to get involved in coaching, did just that.   The first step on the road to becoming a coach at that time was to go to the SAAA Assistant Club Coaching Course which was over two weekends at Inverclyde Sports Centre on the Clyde Coast at Largs.   Coaching qualifications at that time were on three levels: Assistant Club Coach, Club Coach and Senior Coach.      The first of these covered all events and like every coaching course was conducted by a range of coaches,  It was partly theory and partly practical in nature.   Among those attending the course were Ian Robertson and Eddie Taylor   who would also become excellent coaches in their own right, coach British as well as Scottish international athletes and become part of the structure of the sport nationally.   On the staff side, dispensing the knowledge, were ex-National Coach Tony Chapman with Frank Dick, Sandy Robertson and Sean Kyle from Ireland.    Sandy Robertson was a top class coach who would become a major influence on Tommy and he encouraged Tommy to come back and go through the Assistant Club Coach Course for a second time because the information gained was so valuable and could not be totally assimilated in one go-through.   To this day Tommy believes that he learned a lot all the way through his coaching career “listening carefully to knowledgeable people.”   

Back in Bellshill he was coaching at the YMCA – Tuesdays at the YMCA and Thursdays at Bellshill Academy.   There was a team of excellent coaches, not all SAAA qualified, but all very good at what they did.   Men like Willie McWhinnie who worked with 9-11 and 11-13 year olds, Jim McDaid, ex pro footballer who gave the boys a wee game after every session.   Gradually a network of local schools was established to feed children into the club.   Jimmy Graham who was a Primary School teacher and a cross-country enthusiast from Lawmuir Primary School. guided many fine youngsters from a deprived area into the club.   Tommy noted that “Jimmy was fiercely competitive and his team wore T shirts – “You’re running behind a Lawmuir runner.”   Brilliant psychology.  ”   Christine McAllister who had brought her daughter to the club and stayed and became the club treasurer and with her local knowledge ensured that the focus at the club was always on the children.   Tommy himself worked with all age groups and remembers two young runners in particular: Michael Hendry and David Watson.     They finished second and third in the 1972 Senior Boys National Cross-country championship at Edinburgh three and four second respectively behind the winner Mark Watt.   He said there was a procession of talent emerging: athletes like Billy Thomas, gold ar 13-15 499m, Pat Mooty, SAAA silver in 2000m steeplechase abd, like many more, became the best that they could be.   Tommy describes the YMCA at that time as a holistic club, a club that looks after all aspects of the athlete’s life, not concentrating only on the sporting activities.

Among the other athletes that Tommy worked with at this time, top middle distance runner Roy Baillie was one who came to the club at the age of 17 from BB Cross-Country running.   In his first season with the club he ran 800m in 2:08.   Roy ran for Bellshill YMCA and later for Clyde Valley AC.   Born in December 1953, by the age of 19 he was running 400m in 51.2 to be ranked 26th in Scotland.   In the course of his running career he had personal best times of 50.0 (400m), 1:1:51.1 (800m) and 3:56.2 for 1500m.   He also won 4 medals in the SAAA championships.   Tommy learned a lot from working with Roy – he had the theory but he honed his understanding of what produced results at 800m working with an honest athlete  who also helped the club out on all fronts including fund raising, taking the younger runners on the pretraining warm up run.  

The club at this time trained from the YMCA Centre over three basic trails of 1.5, 2.5 and 4 miles and the 4 miles circuit was still being used by Tom McKean and Yvonne Murray when they were among the very best in the world.   They also trained on the Newarthill (ash) track of 325 yards, ie 5 laps to the mile.   There were also two ash football fields which were end to end rather than the usual layout of pitches side by side.   This meant that longer repetitions could be done with long straights available to the coaches for activities such as fartlek sessions and other training practices.   Of course they also ran cross-country in winter and this was where Hendry and Watson trained.   Not having a standard 400 metres track did not stop their progress – their use of the environment and its possibilities was key to the development of the club.   

Roy Baillie, 14, at the start of the Lanarkshire Cross-Country Championship

Another of Tommy’s proteges at this time was Ian Callander – another who would be a medallist in SAAA championships.   A very good 100m/200m runner.   Three years younger than Baillie,  10.9 (100m), 22..3 (200m) and 49.9 (400m).   His father was the local Police Chief Inspector who helped get the YMCA club the use of the police recreation hut.   This became the weight training and speedball facility.   Having got it, Tommy and his teamhad to beg or make weights equipment and was now forced into learning about strength and conditioning.   His weight training Bible was Ron Pickering’s AAA’s booklet on Weight Training.   He still recommends this publication as probably the best single source of information on the topic.   

The Bellshill YMCA people enjoyed developing their club – not having a long tradition as so many other clubs did, they did not have the historical inspiration – but nor did they have the historical baggage that so often goes with it.   They could develop the club as the needs arose and as the athletes required.   The community helped the athletes because there was no pressure and no demands placed on them.   The development of the athlete as a person was the key.   Tommy’s coaching focus at this point was on the sprints as he recognised that to produce top level performers, he had to learn more about sprinting and the development of speed in endurance runners.   He started to produce a series of age group champions in the sprints, athletes like Ian Callander, who later went to Edinburgh University where he trained with Bill Walker and added the 400m to his range of events, there was Mark Sherry who went to Loughborough and trained there with John Anderson.   Sherry, like Callander, was a product of Bellshill Academy.    

As the club developed so did his own coaching.   Greedy for knowledge and any information that would help.   The Track and Sports Centre at Coatbridge had opened by now and in addition to being another training facility it was where Tommy could watch other coaches in action, analyisng what they were doing and incorporating what he felt was appropriate into his own work.   Sprint Coach Jimmy Campbell was one of these working with the McMeekin twins doing high intensity track work and circuit training he became a lifelong mentor for Tommy.   He remembers learning about long intervals by watching Brian McAusland and his group over a complete winter – stop watch in pocket of course.   He was greatly influenced by Bill Walker who thought very similarly to Tommy and had speed at the heart of his training regime, and of course Frank Dick who had a massive influence on the young coach Boyle throughout his career.   Tommy was interested at that time in Speed and Short Endurance and he learned some of the practicalities from Bill and from Frank Dick.   Then there was the whole area of Training Theory.   Frank had just translated the German stuff into Training Theory papers which coaches could understand.   “Gold dust,” says Tommy.   From Sandy Robertson he learned more about holistic training: the belief that all the parts of the athlete’s life are inter connected and can only really be developed as parts of the whole lifestyle.   These beliefs were what Bellshill YMCA and its coaches were trying to do and the information fed in from the community – eg by Christine McAllister and other members of the team – were important factors in this.   The holistic approach to training can be studied in any of the books on Mastery Coaching which are easily available for those interested.   

In 1976, while all this was going on at one level, he was still involved with the intensely practical work at Bellshill where one of the talents was Morag Todd.   Morag was a very good sprinter indeed who had career bests of 7.6 (60m),  12.1 (100m), 24.8 (200m), and as a competitor she won five medals at SAAA Championships both indoors and out.   Frank Rafferty (bests of 10.8 and 22.0) who was later to be head of the Glasgow School of Sport coaching team, was another running for the club at that time.   It was at this point in his coaching career that Tommy’s life was about to change.   The club organised races for the local schools and some good athletes were recruited from them.   A group of six or eight came along together and one of the group was Tom McKean.   

By now Tommy was working in such a way that his charges tended to progress year on year, a steady incremental progress that is always better than a progression that goes in fits and starts – a big jump one year, then no improvement for a couple of years, then (maybe) another jump.  Look at Baillie’s progress over three years in Clyde Valley AAC as an example:

Tommy talks of his start in coaching and says, “The first 10 years of my coaching career were spent working in the club situation doing all of the tasks which virtually every other coach does at some stage   i.e.  organising, training, raising funds, creating school feeder structures, administration, attending coaching courses.   My involvement in coach education gradually increased until eventually as Group Organiser for Sprints attending National Event Squads and Council of Coaches I found myself well and truly hooked on the athletics treadmill.   The knowledge gained during that period has proved to be a valuable asset which I could not have gained in any other way.”

The Scottish coaching pyramid at the point consisted of a national coach, group coaches for sprints, endurance events, jumps and throws, and event coaches responsible to the group coaches.   eg endurance events had event coaches for 800 & 1500m, 5000 & 10000m, steeplechase, marathon.   Each group – sprints, endurance, etc – had an group organiser who dealt with whatever he and the group coach agreed on.   It was not at the level of event or group coach but it gave the coach access to information, other coaches and activities at national level.   

The connection with Bellshill Academy has been mentioned already.   The club also had links with Cardinal Newman High School where the head of PE, Phil McMahon, was a real enthusiast, a friend of the club and one who sent many young boys along to the club.   One of these was Tom McKean who was one of six or eight who came to train with the club at their Tuesday and Thursday sessions.   He was not the fastest of the group at the time and ran cross-country for the school.   As a 17 year old he just made it into the Scottish Schools training squad where he was told by the coach in charge that he was not fast enough.   This of course had the effect of incentivising the athlete and his coach to prove him wrong.   At this point Tommy was asked by Frank Dick to be the administrative officer for national event coach Bill Walker which gave him contact and a chance to observe such as Allan Wells, Drew McMaster and Cameron Sharp in action.  He was then asked to do some lecturing and this forced him into researching and writing some short papers.   He was also involved in a Scottish Schools residential course at Cramond where he was able to conduct a statistical evaluation of the physical and functional measure of the group.   

Tommy says of young Tom:  “He, like many endurance athletes, was recruited to the club via the feeder cross-country races which we organise for the schools.   One of a group who were motivated enough by the team competitions and varied training to come back, the first hurdle had been crossed.   Although not the best, Tommy was in the cross-country team and managed to win a few medals thus retaining his interest.   I remember he finished 3rd in the Scottish Cross-Country Championships at Glenrothes on six inches of snow, moving from 60th to 3rd in the last 800 metres, and I had to carry him back to the changing rooms.    Yes, he was different – but he was growing like a weed and must not be forced – only to wilt at a later date.”

The run at Glenrothes over a tough, rolling, golf course trail covered with snow was quite remarkable – Tom was in the Junior Boys race and his time was 12:15 – only three seconds behind’s Kilbarchan’s Robert Hawkins and six behind Springburn runner Stuart McPherson.   Just as athletes need to progress towards fulfilling their abilities and ambitions, so must coaches.   Given what we already know about him, Tommy Boyle was always going to progress as a coach: Tom McKean probably accelerated that progress.    The next step in his development as a coach was the narrowing of his focus to coaching at the expense of administration and other activities within the club.    

“I was forced in 1980 to take a very serious look at my commitment to athletics as we were expecting a family.   I asked myself a question which we repeatedly ask our athletes – “What do you want from athletics?”    Answer – “to coach athletes.”   Solution simple – remove everything which was not directly related to coaching.”   The result was that, after a transitional period, I ended up coaching a small group of athletes three times a week, thus allowing for a more balanced lifestyle and one where I was once more able to enjoy the challenge of athletes.

“The next stage was to critically assess the efficiency and effectiveness of my coaching and to ensure that what little time I had was managed in a professional manner.”

Tommy had now  been coaching for some time and was in the position that he had a top class, really top class athlete and had shed all activities extraneous to the actual coaching.   He also, via his appointment as coaching administrator, had access to information and people who could be useful. However, you couldn’t divorce what Tommy from his upbringing and the vision he had of how “Sport was the greatest vehicle there is to develop Character Building Life Lessons” which when delivered over a prolonged period “would help every child to become the very best they could be in sport and life” : this is the golden thread underpinning Tommy’s philosophy towards coaching, and therefore we need to ensure that the thread runs through each part, but manifests itself in different ways .  To get more schools more parent more business aware of the power of sport -however this meant that Tommy had then to be ruthless in the pursuit of excellence with his athletes ,with the big prize in mind .  

It is interesting to note that he tells us that he had no desire to pursue performance coaching in the longer term as so many do and are hooked on the treadmill .   Although Tommy stepped back from the admin stuff in the club in the short term, he always had one eye on how to use the success which would come in the best way possible to help young people in his community and then as we will see in Scotland !

This was Part Two of Tommy’s Profile.   Part One can be seen at  Tommy Boyle: The Background

Tommy presents Bellshill YMCA’s John Waddell with Lifetime Achievement Award